West Wing recovered?

It is back! It is back! I was pleasently surprised Wednesday night to see the West Wing very close to its old form. The story by Lawrence O'Donnell actually had me wishing the show wouldn't end. No high profile car chases, or silly ER-related stunts (Here that Mr. Wells?). The story was character-driven and provided the right balance of plot and view of how the Chief of Staff's office works. It was once said that the West Wing was a weekly civics lesson. We who watch the show like that aspect. I hope this continues...

We, the disorganized, minority party

Will Rogers is credited with saying, “I belong to no organized political party. I'm a Democrat." Obviously with the recent election, those are words to consider carefully while performing the inevitable post-mortem on the results. What strikes me however is that I actually said that line just a week before the election. The Kerry-Edwards made quite a lot of noise about its Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign. This included the use of volunteers staffing call centers to call other volunteers. The interesting thing is that when I went to the Kerry-Edwards call center in Washington DC, most of the people we were calling to volunteer fell into one of three categories:
• already volunteering as a result of a prior phone call
• had been called 12 times before
• could not help
The former two items were very disconcerting. The system worked as follows: the local call center was sent a script with a list of names and numbers to call. We were supposed to write the status of the call on the sheet and this was supposedly recycled back to the National Party. Presumably, the people that were already volunteering would be entered into a database so their names would not show up on the next call list. The most egregious example was the person that said “We needed to get our act together — I have been called 12 times”. While obviously enthusiastic about making calls, there is clearly a demoralizing factor to facing our own incompetence as a party squarely in the face. How are we supposed to run the country when we cannot be relied upon to update a basic database?

Campaigns of today are clearly about information. Managing that information is an important role and to a large part, the party that manages its demographics, will win. This holds particularly true with an essentially evenly-split electorate. So, the best way to help is to get involved. I will certainly contact whomever I need to in the party and see what I can do to make the next election better.

Speech Contest

Under the Toastmasters heading, I went to a district 27 convention this past weekend. There was a speaker there named Craig Valentine. Craig won the 1999 Toastmaster's World Championship of Public Speaking. Craig had a great style and an upbeat message. One thing I took away was his task: describe your perfect day. How many of us go through life without knowing why we are doing it. What is your perfect day? For me, I am still working on it, but I am sure it has to do with having a son I love and that loves me, and a law degree somewhere on the wall. I am also sure it does not involve the New Jersey Turnpike!